marie claire (Marie Claire)

Member Name: nataliephelan84

Product:	Marie Claire
Date:	13/06/04 (183 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great features, cheap

Disadvantages: bulky, ads

Im a huge fan of Glamour magazine, but as its a monthly publication i get a bit fed up waiting for the next issue to come out, so i always end up buying marie claire every month aswell. Its a great magazine for the modern woman and i hope you'll find this review very helpful!!

Marie claire has been around for 15 years and in its time has won 27 awards, including best designed consumer magazine of the year award in 2003, editor of the year 2003, best beauty pages in 1991 and best international magazine brand in 1994.

The magazine is roughly A4 size, so the standard size for most magazines, which makes it quite difficult to lug about in your handbag and doesnt make for very comfortable reading on the train unless youre lucky enough to get a lovely table seat. At the moment marie claire is priced at £2.50 but thats subject to change about once a year or so, most magazines go up in price about ten pence every now and again. Its the same size as magazines like FHM and Vogie which cost upwards of £3 an issue, so its good value.

Every few months you will find a free gift with the magazine, most recently these have been a set of different sized makeup bags and a tote bag which i have found extremely useful in carting my tons of makeup to and from my boyfriends house, although im not too chuffed with the watery blue colour of the bag, i feel they could have splashed out on some nice fabric dye or something, i know im a student and im poverty stricken and therefore forced to carry my stuff about in magazine freebies but that doesnt mean i dont have any taste!!!

Anyway, rant over with, the magazine boasts a huuuge range of celebrity covers, this month its cate blanchett, but every month theres a celeb on the front, last month was jennifer aniston (im SO loving her new fringey look).
About a third of the magazine pages are taken up by adverts, but thats where they get most of their funding from, it costs mega bucks to place a full pa
ge ad in a national magazine or newspaper, let alone a 5 page spread like skincare company Biotherm did in this months Glamour.
The magazines are mostly for makeup and skincare products, and for the latest lines from fashion houses such as Dior and Gucci. (Did you know that Gucci now make an ice cube tray?! thats right folks, for 40 quid you can plonk G shaped lumps of ice into your margaritas)

The magazine is roughly 350 pages per issue, but remember that alot of that is advery space - actually, ill have a nosey in the latest issue and count! .......................*my arm is aching like mad from all that page turning!*.......there are 167 pages of adverts in the April 2004 Marie Claire. Some are one page ads and the rest are 2 page ads. There are 12 pages of classified adverts also and the ads are on almost every other page. The ont place in the magazine where you can turn more than three pages and not see an advert are the fashino pages where there are dozens of pictures of models wearing the latest unaffordable clothes, and in the name of research ive just put myself through the trauma of seeing a chanel jacket ill never be able to afford - i could cry! - so rate my op nicely! :)

Marie Claire isnt just sold in the UK, its also sold in america, europe, the middle east and africa.

The content of the magazine goes something like this...............

Features - such as this months special on las vegas weddings

Interviews - this month with the cover star cate blanchett and Nigel Harman from eastenders.

Global report - every month theres a feature on a developing country, or an article outlining an issue in another country, this might be adoption or animal cruelty, or something like the developing nations.

Columns - a monthly contribution from pamela anderson (!) and features from the magazines own journalists, and journos from other magazines, such as Pete Cash from Loaded.

Icon - on the ba
ck pages theres a hero of the month section, where modern day heros are given some recognition, these are more often that not, women, and this months is Sara Payne.

Juice - music, films, books, tv

Fashion - models, trends, designers, ideas, budget

Beauty - skincare, makeup, haircare, makeovers, latest looks, salon treatments, cheats guides to makeup

Health - latest health issues

Lifestyle - home, food, garden, men

Travel - minibreaks, reviews, holiday destinations

Special offers - giveaways and competitions

Monthy features - editors letter, letters, problem page, horoscope, directory - where you can find numbers and web addresses for all the companies listed within the magazine, careers, classifieds.

Quite frequently you get free samples of products attatched to their adverts within the mag, such as sachets of shampoo or skin cream, so that you can try them out before you rush off to buy them, theyre great for saving for your holidays because they take up no space at all and cant leak - little tip there for ya ;o)

You can subscribe to marie claire via a form inside every issue of the magazine, and via www.ipcmedia.com and www.subscription.co.uk but if you subscribe using a code inside the magazine on the subscription advert then youll be able to take advantage of special offers such as discounted rates and free gifts. Subscription currently costs £16 for a year. Thats a 20% saving on the full price.

Marie O'Riordan is the editor of the magazine (watch out missy im after your job!) and she can be contacted via
marie claire
13th floor
kings reach tower
stamford street
london
SE1 9LS
Tel, 020 7261 5240
Email marieclaire@ipcmedia.com
www.ipcmedia.com

I hope this has been useful to you

Natalie :)

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